Dynamo blow lead, score on penalty kick to beat Fire

Dynamo recover to win after losing two-goal leadHolden converts on late penalty kick to take down Fire

BERNARDO FALLAS, Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, August 9, 2009

Photo: Julio Cortez, Chronicle

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Dynamo defender Geoff Cameron, left, and Chicago Fire midfielder Marco Pappa battle for the ball during the first half.

Dynamo defender Geoff Cameron, left, and Chicago Fire midfielder Marco Pappa battle for the ball during the first half.

Photo: Julio Cortez, Chronicle

Dynamo blow lead, score on penalty kick to beat Fire

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The Dynamo better hope this doesn’t develop into a habit.

Another strong offensive display in the first half at home. Another comfortable lead blown in the second. Another dramatic finish to leave them with a win as well as concerns.

This time it was a two-goal lead the Dynamo blew before Stuart Holden’s penalty kick goal in the 83rd minute held for a 3-2 win over the Chicago Fire on Sunday at Robertson Stadium.

“We need to start playing better with the lead,” said coach Dominic Kinnear, who a week earlier witnessed something similar in a 4-3 win over D.C. United, against whom the team blew a three-goal halftime lead. “We need to keep the ball better, but on the other side we need to defend better.”

The win before 18,809 was still a boost for the Dynamo (11-6-5) as it came three days after a flat performance yielded a 1-0 loss at FC Dallas. It was key to their goal of padding their Western Conference lead, now seven points over the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Chicago (8-4-8, second in the East) entered the match unbeaten in its last five MLS matches and fell for only the second time on the road.

Goals by Kei Kamara and Ricardo Clark had the Dynamo up 2-0 at halftime. Kamara smashed a 7-yarder past Fire keeper Jon Busch in the 21st minute for his fifth goal of the season; Clark made a precise run to collect a lob by Brian Ching in the Chicago box and fired past Busch for his first of the season in the 38th.

But much like last weekend’s home win over D.C. United, the Dynamo allowed the opponent back in the game to start the second half.

Chris Rolfe cut the Dynamo’s lead in half in the 46th minute with a stellar long-range shot to beat keeper Pat Onstad (two saves) low and to his left. The Dynamo weren't done shaking their heads when second-year midfielder Peter Lowry scored on a subtle volley off a cross by Cuauhtémoc Blanco less than two minutes later to make it 2-2.

“We came out very unready (in the second half) and unaware,” Kinnear said. “We didn’t recognize danger and got punished for it.”

Sitting alone in the locker room after the game, second-year defender Julius James was quick to take the blame for that goal after his attempt to shepherd a ball out of bounds backfired, with Blanco dispossessing him just outside the box before sending in the clinical cross from the left.

“He fouled me; he swiped me,” James said. “It’s Blanco; that’s all I’ll say about that. (But) it’s a learning experience; next time I kick the ball out and don’t take the chance.”

While the Fire did their damage in the second half, Kinnear was also critical of the Dynamo's defending during stretches of the first 45 minutes, when Chicago was afforded too much space when attacking.

“We were too spread," Kinnear said. "We didn't do a good enough job of pinching in and making them play in front of us; they were playing over us, sometimes with a little bit too much ease."

The Dynamo caught a break with less than 10 minutes left in the game when Chicago’s Brandon Prideaux brought down Corey Ashe inside the box for the penalty kick Holden converted for his sixth goal of the season.

Blanco had a chance to tie it again just minutes later, but his 15-yarder to chip Onstad deflected out of the far post. Onstad then made a monster save on a 20-yarder by Lowry in the 86th minute to help preserve the victory.

That the Dynamo recently have squandered sizeable leads at home is not sitting well with Kinnear.

"It's a concern," he said. "I don't know that it's a trend -- it's only happened twice -- but we need to make sure we address it because we can't let it slide."